The Hunting season in Spain is about to begin – for ‘hunting’ read also ‘coursing’. The poor rejected galgos and podencos from the 2010 season are still arriving in perreras across Spain for killing, or being abandoned and injured in road accidents.

The Hunting Federations deny there is any cruelty connected with their members’ treatment of their galgos. They claim that all the scaremongering is because of ‘animal rights’ people lying. They continue to stick their heads up their a…s and ignore the fact that photos and videos abound on the Internet to prove a lie to their claims.

Here is a video taken in the Olivenza perrera – killing station, known as the Auschwitz of of Galgos – in Badajoz, Extremadura- a hellhole for dogs of any breed. The Federacion Espanola de Galgos en La Manana continues to deny our allegations of mass abandonment and cruelty, even in the face of videos such as this. This was filmed in Olivenza in October 2010

The hunters that use Galgo´s for catching hares, deny or lie about all the horrible, sad and sick things that have been done to the poor dogs.. They say they´re biggest Galgo lovers, that couldn´t abandon a dog that they raised, fed and cared for. They say they´re expensive dogs, that it would be stupid to sacrafice something that´s worth so much. That the rate of abandoned Galgo´s is wrong. They say far fewer Galgos are killed, abandoned and in shelters..

But the real answers are shown in the video.. and it´s the opposite as what the hunters say.. The video is made in a Spanish shelter, called a killing-station.. The dogs are brought there by their owners, the hunters themselves.. The dogs that are there receive no food and medical care, because in a short period they will be killed.. So why spend money on these dogs.. The video is made after the 2010 hunting season ended and most of the dogs thre are Galgos and a few other hunting dogs.. Starving, scared, wounded.. Some more dead than alive.. Waiting to be killed..

The cheapest method they use paralyses the dog; it takes on average 20 minutes for a dog to die.

And the circle of life continous.. More Galgos will be born.. others will be killed.. The hunters want to create the best ones for the hunt, the others are worth nothing.. And after not being useful to hunt anymore, they will be dumped, mistreated or killed in the most sickening ways.. The sad destiny of the Galgo.. When does it stop?’

Here’s an article about Olivenza from the Pro-Galgo website – you will need to use a translator from Spanish to English.

And many more from FEPAEX, an animal rescue association based in Badajoz.

(If anyone can email me translation, I will be very grateful. band@bbrennan.eu)

Ed’s note

Not all perreras are as bad as this – I was contacted by a Spanish man in a municipal perrera who wanted to save the 4 galgos there, and appealed to me to get them out, he was even willing to drive up to the Spanish/French border with them. So please remember on behalf of the volunteers and people in Spain, there are many who do care and try to save some of the dogs in the killing stations. But sadly not in Olivenza.

Some dogs in these photos had been in the killing station for 2 weeks, starved and dehydrated, on death row.